Finger-board for string instruments.



No. 65I,304. Patented Iune 5, |900.

EQERIKSEN. FINGER BUABD FUR STRING INSTRUMENTS.

(Application filed Nov. 13, 1899.) (N o M u d e I.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERIOK ERIKSEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FINGER-BOARD FOR STRING INSTRUMENTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 651,304, dated June 5,1900.

Application filed November 13, 1899. Serial No. 736,821. (No model.)

Be it knovvn that I, ERICK ERIKSEN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Finger-Boards for StringInstruments; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as Will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to a novel construction in a finger-board forstringed instrumentssuch as guitars, mandolins, banjos, &c.-the obj ectbeing to provide a device in which the frets are so located Withreference to each string as to form a practically-separate scaletherefor, thus producing perfect harmony in theinstrument; and itconsistsin the features of construction and combinations of -partshereinafter fully described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, Figure 1 is afragmentary view inelevation of a guitar provided With a finger-boardconstructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional viewon the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

I have found in practice that a guitar or similar instrument is never inperfect harmony, except as tuned before playing thereon, owing to the.fact that the graduation of the frets though correct forone string isonly partially correct for another, so that no two strings can besimilarly graduated and produce perfect harmony. To overcome orpartiallyovercome this eectjt has been customary to set some of thefrets at a slight incline to the others; but this Ihave found to beentirely insufficient to` correct the defects.

My invention, therefore, consists in providing supplementary frets onthe fingerboard lying underneath the strings at various pointssufficiently far removed from the main frets to correct the error in thenote produced by depressing such string upon such main fret.

I have illustrated a guitar which is provided with six strings, named E,A, D, G, B, and E strings, respectively, the E string being an octaveremoved. Vhen at the proper tension said strings when vibrated producethe corresponding notes, and by depressing any one of said strings uponone of the main frets and vibrating it a higher note is produced. Saidfrets are irregularly spaced, so `that for each string successivelydepressed upon cach of the same notes in a musical scale are produced.The notes produced on some strings on the same fret may be correct, buton one or more of the strings they may be incorrect.

I have numbered the main frets from l to 19. The instrument is tuned bydepressing all of the strings on the fifth fret and adjusting theirtension until each produces the correct note. By depressing the stringson frets 1, 3, 4, 10, 11, 13,15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 each Will producethe desired correct note, or so nearly correct that a very fineadjustment Would be necessary to make same absolutely correct. On theremaining frets, however, one or several of the strings Will producecorrect notes, while the remainder will produce more or less incorrectnotes to an extent sufficient to destroy perfect harmony. To overcomethis, I cut recesses in said frets underneath such of the strings Whichproduce incorrect notes thereon and adjacent such fret mount WhatI terma supplemental fret,said supplemental frets being indicated by 2', 6a,7, Sa, 9, 12, and 14, each of said supplemental frets being in alinementWith the -re cess in the main fret, so that in depressing the string itWill touch said supplemental fret and be free of the main fret, therebyproducing the correct note. The supplemental frets Ga and 8L extendbeside the main fret 6 and 8 entirely across the finger-board and areprovided With recesses at points corresponding to the raised portions ofthe main frets, and the latter are recessed to correspond with theraised portions of the supplemental frets. v

Though I have illustrated my invention only as applied to a guitar, itmay obviously be applied to mandolins and other instruments havinglinger-boards provided With frets.

I claim as my invention- A iinger-board for stringinstruments having aplurality of main frets and a plurality of supplementary frets adjacentsome of said In testimony whereof affix. my signature in presence of twoWitnesses.

| ERICK ERIKSEN.v

main frets, some of said main frets being recessed at given points inalinement with said adjacent supplemental frets, whereby when a stringpassing over e recess in a main fret and over an adjacent supplementalfret is de- Witnesses:

pressed, it will be broughtin Contact With said E. F. VILSON,

supplemental fret to produce a correct note. 1 RUDOLPH WM. LOTZ.

